Instant lottery games have become an important source of income to governments and numerous non-for-profit organizations. Typically, a set of instant lottery tickets is imaged with play and prize value indicia under a scratch-off coating according to a predetermined prize structure. The prize structure often comprises a relatively small number of large value prize tickets, a number of lesser value prize tickets, and a large number of void tickets. The prizes are distributed randomly to the tickets such that each ticket purchased by a player has an equal chance to win one of the prizes.
The tickets are then distributed to ticket retailers—such as, for example, convenience stores, supermarkets, gas stations, gift shops, etc.—for dispensing the tickets to consumers and for validating the tickets when they are presented for redemption.
With numerous instant lottery games on the market it has become a challenge to sustain public interest. In response, larger valued prizes are offered in various instant lottery games. However, with the increased value of the prizes there is an increased risk that individuals having access to the tickets, for example, employees of the ticket retailer attempt to identify the winning tickets—i.e. attempt to access prize information on the tickets—in a set of tickets for sale, referred to as “fishing”.
Instant lottery tickets typically comprise a substrate such as a sheet of, for example, thin cardboard or boxboard, having a secure area and a graphic area with the information printed in the secure area, for example, in the form of a barcode, being hidden by one or more opaque scratch-off layers printed there over. Unfortunately, the coatings used for the scratch-off layers may be incompatible with some lithographic printing processes that produce high quality images and, therefore, instant lottery tickets are visually less appealing. This presents a significant disadvantage since instant lottery tickets may be impulse purchase items and the overall aesthetic appeal substantially affects marketability.
Furthermore, removing the scratch-off layers using, for example, a finger nail or sharp object is a cumbersome process and bar code scanners are known to have reliability problems when a portion of the barcode has been damaged during removal of the scratch-off layers.
It is desirable to provide a method for determining a prize associated with a lottery ticket that substantially reduces the risk of fishing.
It is also desirable to provide an instant lottery ticket that reduces the risk of fishing and has aesthetic appeal.